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Another ottonavi install...

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by mschul, Oct 12, 2011.

  1. mschul

    mschul Junior Member

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    Delivered yesterday, and installed rather easily- thanks to the many posts here. Some minor confusion here and there, but thanks to all of you who went ahead and posted your own findings/thoughts.

    Looks nice, put the GPS rec'r in the right window as Danorob did, and while I had all that pulled apart I took the extra step of taking the right column apart and running the bluetooth mic to the center console up top and replacing the existing one there...

    The GPS took some trial and error to get a signal, but once I did, it rather quickly.

    The sound I'm getting from this unit, however, is awful.
    I'm not much for radio- cd/mp3/pandora via bluetooth... that's what I do, and the sound is not good for any of them. Compared to the factory JBL head I had installed, I'm not impressed. I've got an email in to ottonavi to see if they have any suggestions. I've played with all the audio settings I can find, and it sounds as if you're running a portable mp3/cd player on max volume through a stereo system. Very hissy and grainy- seeing if there are any suggestions out there? I know I saw someone who installed with JBL, any issues on your end for sound? Everything has been triple checked to make sure it's in and tight...

    The user interface is kinda weird. Not the most straightforward, but it does the job.

    This is/would be a great head unit and a great deal if I can figure this out. Perhaps it's just the unit itself?

    Thoughts? Suggestions?
     
  2. Danorob

    Danorob Junior Member

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    MSCHUL -

    I am sure this is a stupid question, but you did use the correct harness for the car with JBL Correct ?

    There are two included with the Unit - One for JBL, and one for NON-JBL -

    Have you tried an actual CD or IPOD to see how they sounded??? In my case I never use anything but my IPOD, and this also sounds 10 times better then with the stock system...

    Since I only had a Pirus Level II, I used the NON-JOB harness, and have to tell you that everyone who has listened to it thinks it sounds farly good considering I am still using the factory Speakers...

    How Long did it take you to figure out that you had to enable the GPS Receiver on the unit ??? I thought the thing was defective - After playing for 20 minutes I stumbled on the ENABLE GPS button, and all was good from there on...

    The Only Think that I am a little miffed about is that why you have the option of either 12hr or 24hr time setting on the navaigation portion of the system, OttoNavi told me that the main system only runs 24hr time format - Not that it really matters, but it is annoying...

    Dan
     
  3. mschul

    mschul Junior Member

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    I did use the correct harness, reading all the other posts helped a lot to figure that out... The instructions that came with here awful...

    I have tried multiple cds, an ipod, and a thumb drive with mp3s, all the same. If I listen quietly, really quietly, and turn all bass, mids, and treble, down, way down, it's sounds good- but who wants to listen to music at that level. I don't like it super loud either- mostly listen to classical and jazz.

    The interface is funky, and it took me a few minutes to find the right area to get the gps to start, mostly because the menu system seems to not be well thought out, in my opinion.

    The 24hr clock is weird. I can live with it seeing as though I'm used to looking at the clock on the dash.
     
  4. Danorob

    Danorob Junior Member

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    Did you Call OttoNavi and Speak to Johnny, or E-Mail him At [email protected] - He is their head technician...

    It must just be a defective unit, because someone else on the forum installed the same unit on a JBL car, and said everything worked including the Bluetooth buttons on the sterring wheel...

    Keep us posted with the outcome...

    Dan
     
  5. glennhl

    glennhl Member

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    I'm the person that installed an Ottonavi in my 2011 Prius III with JBL. And you are correct, you used the correct harness because the other one wouldn't work. There wouldn't be any plugs you could mate with on your car.

    What you describe sounds like what my AM/FM sounds like. I have to turn the volume, bass, and mids way down. But my IPOD and CD's sound GREAT! Much better than the stock unit. I'm not happy with the AM/FM and I am currently working with Ottonavi to solve it.

    One thing you could try. Not sure if it will make a difference. Before I had the audio set to "External Amplifier", I tried using the Scosche interface. The instructions said to set your stock head unit to 3/4 volume before you unplugged it. It's worth a try, put your stock unit back in, turn it up to 3/4 and take it back out. I'll be surprised if it fixes it, but heck, doesn't take that long to try it.

    And if it works, maybe I should try turning my stock unit down and unplugging it to see if the AM/FM works better. To tell you the truth, my AM/FM doesn't sound like interference as much as it just sounds bad. But the IPOD & CD sound awesome. And I really like the IPOD interface.

    By the way, how does your AM/FM sound?

    Thanks,
    Glenn
     
  6. prius2010II

    prius2010II Member

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    My memory (from reading this board) is that the Prius antenna has some kind of amp built in. It uses the power antenna wire from the HU. Is it possible that wire isn't "live"? I guess it's possible, in order to meet a price point, very low quality parts were used for the radio part of the HU.
     
  7. glennhl

    glennhl Member

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    You are correct. I searched this forum and found out it was pin 13 on the 20 pin connector (car side). I checked the voltage and it was zero with the unit playing a CD or IPOD. I thought I had found the problem. But when I turned the head unit to AM or FM, pin 13 went to 12 volts. So I am getting power to the antenna amp when the unit is on the radio.
     
  8. mschul

    mschul Junior Member

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    Tech guy at Ottonavi is on vacation until next tuesday- so no dice yet.

    Tried to set factory radio to certain volumes and then change to new unit and it didn't do anything. At this point I can only assume there's an issue with the unit. I'll wait until next week and see if their tech guy can be of assistance, if not I'll return it and have them send another out...

    In the mean time I plan on tinkering with the programs and WinCE. The GUI is not that intuitive... and I like to screw around with this stuff.
     
  9. glennhl

    glennhl Member

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    Just an update. My radio sounds great if I use the internal amp setting and then the IPOD & CD volume is on the low side. If I use the external amp setting the IPOD & CD works perfectly, but the radio & nav voice break up. I think I'm getting a high signal out to the JBL amp when on External Amp setting and I should be getting a low signal out. Ottonavi said they will talk to the factory and if they don't know how to fix it, they will send me a new unit when their next shipment gets in.

    Any update on your issues? Have you tried the internal versus external amp setting? You have to push in the right top knob for audio controls and the last one is the setting. Then turn off the unit and turn it back on to take effect.
     
  10. mschul

    mschul Junior Member

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    Just got off the phone with Ottonavi- I tried using both the internal vs. external amp setting, neither did the trick for me. The tech guy I spoke to pretty much gave me that for tech support, and since I already knew that didn't help.......

    I'll be sending the unit back. As of now it's an almost $700 paper weight for my musical quality taste. They are all out of the units right now, and said he'll call me when they get more in. I'll have to think about it-

    If the unit sounded nice it was good for the money. Not perfect, but good.

    I remember someone asked about music playing/file searching in another thread(and I'm lazy so hopefully you see this)- you can browse folders to find music. It couldn't get it to work through the actual music player, but if you go to the menu and then file option, you can choose to find audio from local/sd/usb, and then browse and select files from there. Works well that way-
     
  11. mschul

    mschul Junior Member

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    Random question, sort of- hopefully someone reading knows the answer-
    On the back of the factory unit, there are three "plugs", plastic ports, whatever you'd like to call them. One(for those like myself with the JBL) to the amp, and one that seems to be for steering wheel control?, but there's still a third smaller one in the middle, that for this unit wasn't used. What exactly does that one do? There's also the antennae, which I figured out, and a blue connector which I assumed was for the bluetooth mic, but perhaps I'm wrong... So anyone know what the small white non-used connex is for?
     
  12. prius2010II

    prius2010II Member

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    The blue connector is for the XM antenna. The connector was unused? Might be for an external CD changer. I think the CD jack is a roundish shape 3 rows of 4 and one in the bottom centered--not sure
     
  13. young1nj

    young1nj New Member

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    The product does not work! After the very difficult installation, I lost other features in the car. The system kept turning on and off, so I lost simple features like the radio! Installation instructions and user guide was inadequate to say the least. When I contacted this company they refuse a refund! Do not purchase this, it is a scam!
     
  14. teiresias

    teiresias Junior Member

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    This seems rather counter to what other people have experienced with this unit. What features did you lose that we aren't already aware that you lose with this HU?

    This is also seems to be one of the relatively "plug-n-play" units, so calling it "very difficult" seems rather extreme. The majority of the work (trim removal, mounting brackets, wire routing) seems like it's the same procedure as would need to be done for installing any head unit, regardless of make.
     
  15. glennhl

    glennhl Member

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    Where did you buy it? I bought directly off the Ottonavi website and they've been very supportive. I got mine working on my JBL unit using a Scosche adapter and they even refunded the $75 I paid for the Scosche adapter. And first they sent me another unit which is the upgraded faster unit for no extra charge even though they get $100 more for that unit. Plus they just sent me a free back-up camera for the difficulties I had getting the unit to work with my JBL system. To say the least, the guys at Ottonavi.com have been great to work with. I'm guessing you bought a unit off of Ebay by the sound of things.
     
  16. rrolff

    rrolff Prius Surgeon

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    The sky is falling - duck!!! Nice first useless post... Learn to type and formulate an articulate paragraph... You aren't by chance from China ;)
     
  17. wenkai

    wenkai New Member

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    I just finished my Ottonavi install over the weekend. Here are some notes if not covered in the thread already that may help with your decision. Even though overall I would rate this unit an 8 out of 10, I am still very satisfied with the unit for the price I paid for it.

    I bought the "G2" version, not sure what the difference is but the rep claims it has a faster processor. They were able to ship my unit the same day and I received it in 2 days (I am also in California)

    I have no experience at all and it took me under an hour to install it taking my time. You will need a 10mm socket and a 12" extension. I have a Prius II with no JBL and there are 4 plugs in the factory harness and 1 of them is not used (took me a while to figure that out). I haven't installed the backup camera yet so I can't comment on that. I left the microphone under the shifter cover and it seems to work ok from there. I stuck the GPS antenna to the lower right back side of the unit, it takes a few minutes for it to lock in the satellites (I am sure I would get a better signal if I mounted it somewhere else but I didn't want to take the car apart. I routed the USB cables and iPod connector to the lower glove box since I didn't want to drill any holes. It has almost all the features I want (GPS, plays music/video off a USB stick, iPod interface, auxiliary plug works, steering wheel buttons work, my iPhone 4s works, I can stream audio from my phone via bluetooth.

    Lack of documentation, it took a while for me to dig around the interface to figure things out (7/10). The color and texture of the unit is pretty close to factory 9/10. The face of the unit is not quite flush especially the lower right corner 8/10. The button lighting at night is very dim, almost unreadable (I couldn't find a setting to turn this up) 5/10. GPS interface is very good 10/10. iPod and the phone interface is a bit slow 7/10. I would give the overall interface a 8/10. I didn't like the skin/theme but it looks like it is changeable if I can find the right file to download. The interface is not as "tight/polished" as I would like and I don't know if they will release any software updates down the line. The speakers sound much better maybe due to a stronger amp 10/10. The volume doesn't seem to be balanced between the different function, the radio volume is much louder than the other functions like gps/aux/phone/etc and I haven't found a setting to adjust this 7/10. The unit "hung" on me once when I was fiddling around with the menus but it has not happened since. You will hear a very faint whirrring sound when the car is dead silent due to the cooling fan in the back of the unit.

    Overall a decent unit for the price...
     

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  18. teiresias

    teiresias Junior Member

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    Wow, that lower right fitment is pretty bad. I'd probably send it back for that, or at least call Ottonavi and see if that's a known issue. You may want to check your bracket mounting though.
     
  19. wenkai

    wenkai New Member

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    The fit bothered me a bit at first but not so much anymore. I'm ok with it the way it is. The brackets are not adjustable, there is no play at all. I would probably have to dremel the holes to adjust and possibly making it worse.

     
  20. dehhh

    dehhh Junior Member

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    did you have to spice any wires or is the unit plug and play?